Blog

Silk Bow Ties - just listed

I've just listed 7 new silk bow ties. Please check them out on my online store. Half of them were made from old neck ties and half of them are from a generous gentleman who found the fabric for me.

Coming On Thursday

Bow Ties for A Wedding

Check out these wedding photos.  This incredibly creative couple in Rock Hill, SC opted for each gent in the wedding party to be outfitted with a unique bow tie from The Cordial Churchman.  They were giddy with excitement when they came over to my sweatshop studio and picked through my inventory of fabrics until they found the nine they wanted.  Perhaps my favorite of the batch is on the groom, who wore a bow tie made with gray and ivory raw silk.  It looked really cool.

There's a lesson to be learnt in all of this:  By no means does a wedding party have to be slavishly matchy-matchy.  Hold down the fort with some solid colors, and then let 'er rip when it comes to the neckwear.

Thanks to Brian Powell of Project: Life Photography for sharing these proofs.  If you're in the Carolinas and need a photographer, you've got your man.  I also hear the dude can keep bad guys out of your corporate offices with the best of them, if you need that sort of thing.

PS--Brian: We hereby award you a free bow tie of your choice.

- Andy and Ellie

Five Things

Five Things you didn't really need to know about me but I'll tell you anyway.

1. I wouldn't let my husband wear a bow tie to our wedding because I thought they looked goofy.
2. I recently straightened up my sewing room and my 2 year old came in and said "I See the floor". That's pretty bad!
3. I'm really addicted to caffeine so in an effort to try to cut back, I started mixing regular and decaf - now I drink twice as much - I guess that didn't work!
4. I made 41 bow ties in the past 4 days. (and I haven't been in bed before 1:30am)
5. I'm really tired this morning.

Here's a photo of one of the bow ties I made last night out of a pair of nantucket red pants that Andy found at the Thrift store. I made one for my husband and one for a special blogger who will be showcasing my bow ties next weekend in Boston.  Sorry for the low quality - it was taken very late at night with a web-cam.

Chambray Bow Tie

Here’s another new bow tie I’ve just added to the Store - Chambray. It makes for a beautiful versatile and casual look. I’m a big fan. This bow tie is in the straight/batwing style which looks fine, but I’m thinking butterfly may be best style for this fabric. What do you think?

Two Toned Seersucker Bow Tie

Here's a fun new bow tie that I've added to my online Store - the Two Toned Seersucker Bow Tie.  This was a special request from a customer, but I loved it so much I decided to make it available to anyone who wants it.  Why not?  

Aren't you glad Easter is gone so we can start wearing seersucker again?  I'm thinking of making THIS dress for myself out of blue seersucker.  I think of making dresses all the time but it never seems to happen!

The Butterfly, The Straight, and the Diamond Point Bow Tie

Here are some pictures of my classic 2 3/8" butterfly bow tie, the diamond point and the straight style bow tie.  Some gentlemen have been asking what the difference is and hopefully these pictures will help answer it.  I can make virtually any size bow tie - I've even been asked to make 4 inch bow ties!  And most of the time when someone has a special request I can certainly work with him.  That's the benefit of custom ordering directly from the artisan.

The Classic Butterfly Bow Tie - Measures 2 3/8" tall

Diamond Point Style Bow Tie - Measures 2 1/4" tall

Straight Style Bow Tie - Measures 1 3/4" tall

You can judge for yourself what you like.  Over the past few months, I have sold each style about equally.  I was surprised how many ordered the less popular bow ties.  I love them all and they all have different looks.  The diamond point and straight bow ties are much harder to find, but the butterfly can be more readily found at men's dress shops.  I do them all depending on what you choose.  As soon as I take a good picture of the narrow butterfly I'll add it to this post.

Samples of boys bow ties and neck ties

Here's my little man in his very own freestyle bow tie.  It was a little tricky trying to keep him still long enough to get it tied, but it also clips in the back so I don't have to re-tie it every time.  Doesn't he look so cute?  Like he's just come home from a dinner party.

It's amazing how good it looks all tied up.  It totally looks like the real deal, even on a child.

And here is Big Brown Eyes in a sample bow tie and a sample neck tie I made for a friend of mine who sells my bow ties through HER children's clothing boutique business.  We're hoping these fabrics sell well for Easter.  The top one is a 100% cotton blue and green gingham and the second is a seersucker blue and yellow gingham.   I'll try to get more children's things listed on the Store soon.  I have more fun children's fabrics I'm excited to play with.

Maybe someone will see this cute boy of mine and hire him as a model.  And make us rich.  Or at least pay for the cute kid's college.  Come to think of it, I put him in shoes too big for him today, and he got a nice strawberry rug burn on his forehead.  It may have been a modeling career-ending spill.

My custom stamp and a sneak peek at more bow ties

If you've ordered one of my bow ties, then you may recognize this stamp.  I send every order with a handwritten note that I've stamped with my beautiful stamp that I purchased from this seller on etsy.  I have absolutely no idea how these things are made, but It is one of my most favorite things.  I'm about to order a couple more to use as return address stamps.  

I'd encourage anyone who is in the market for something like this to support this business.  Their service and shipping was unbelievably fast and I've been using this stamp regularly for months now and it still works as well as it did the first time I used it.  And I feel like the price is extremely reasonable.  

And for all of you who are wondering when I will refresh my stock of silk bow ties, I've got a few more made up and hope to get them on the store this weekend but as always, if you see something you like, e-mail me and I can reserve it for you.  They are all $23.

Patch Wool and Harris Tweed Scarves

So in the past few months, I've made 3 scarves.  One gentleman came to me in the fall begging me to make him a patch tweed scarf and after a bit if coaxing, I agreed to patch together my first scarf.  It was pretty big - almost six feet long and a 12 inches wide.  But since he's in a colder climate, he wanted some heft around his neck. Here's a picture he sent me of himself wearing the scarf.

Then I thought I'd use some more of the wool that I had on hand to make my husband a christmas gift. This time I used a brown corduroy fabric on the reverse side to reduce some of the bulk. I'm sure you'll recognize much of this fabric from my bow ties.



I think he liked it.

My next patch scarf project has a rather interesting story. Another customer of mine had sent me some tweed he had acquired from Vintage Whistles, an online vintage clothing ship in the UK. All of the fabric was cut from un-wearable Harris Tweed jackets. He wanted me to make him some bow ties and a patch tweed scarf.

It was sortof funny working with vintage fabric from another country.  I was constantly sneezing from either the fibers or the foreign dust in the fabric.  Even when I was at the post office mailing them away, I kept on sneezing and the lady behind me kept blessing me.  I said "Oh, I'm just allergic to this thing that I'm mailing."  After I said that I realized that she probably thought I was absolutely batty.  I hope he likes the scarf and the bow tie though.  I'm not sure how he'll get those suckers tied into a bow, but that's his problem, not mine!  

As you may notice, I'm on a bit of a blogging streak!  Tomorrow I'm going to give you a sneek peek of the Indian madras fabrics I have for my spring/summer collection of bow ties.